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Confusion over VAERS: Why the vaccine safety reporting system should be renamed

PHILADELPHIA – The federal health system for reporting “adverse events” after vaccination, known as VAERS, is designed to assist in the early detection…

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PHILADELPHIA – The federal health system for reporting “adverse events” after vaccination, known as VAERS, is designed to assist in the early detection of complications and responsive action. But when the pandemic and advent of new vaccines for Covid-19 turned a spotlight on this formerly little-known system, the flood of web and social media references to it was accompanied by confusion about what the system is and what the reports in it signify.

Credit: Annenberg Public Policy Center

PHILADELPHIA – The federal health system for reporting “adverse events” after vaccination, known as VAERS, is designed to assist in the early detection of complications and responsive action. But when the pandemic and advent of new vaccines for Covid-19 turned a spotlight on this formerly little-known system, the flood of web and social media references to it was accompanied by confusion about what the system is and what the reports in it signify.

A new report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center examines misconceptions about the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. The report urges the government agencies that manage the system to change its name to a clearer alternative such as “Vaccination Safety Monitor” or “Vaccination Safety Watch,” and make additional changes to reduce the likelihood its information will be misinterpreted or misused.

“Minimizing public susceptibility to misconceptions about the effects of vaccination: Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS),” is the first in a series of case studies produced by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania in partnership with Critica, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve public understanding and acceptance of scientific evidence and counteract health- and science-related misinformation.

“As we’ve seen during the pandemic, public susceptibility to misconceptions about vaccination is increased by confusion about the nature of events reported to VAERS,” Jamieson said. “For example, nearly three-quarters of the public does not know that deaths reported to VAERS are not confirmed to have been caused by the Covid-19 vaccine. The recommendations in our report would help to clarify what this reporting system is and does.” 

What is VAERS?

VAERS is a national program managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “monitor the safety of all vaccines licensed in the United States,” the CDC says. The program “collects and reviews reports of adverse events that occur after vaccination,” including deaths.

Anyone can submit a report to VAERS. The presence of a report in VAERS does not mean it is vaccine-caused. As noted in the Annenberg report, the CDC says VAERS reports “may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.”

To illustrate this point, one doctor famously reported to VAERS that after getting a flu shot, “his skin turned green, his muscles grew and he started having rage problems,” signs that he may have been turning into the Marvel Comics superhero the Incredible Hulk. That report was flagged for its unusual nature, investigated, and removed with the doctor’s consent.

Confusion about VAERS

There were few references to VAERS in digital media until November 2020, when the public learned that vaccines were on track to be authorized to fight Covid-19. After that point, web references to VAERS and public interactions with that content greatly increased.

Yet nearly two years later, there remained vast public confusion about what VAERS is and does. In a nationally representative August 2022 APPC survey, nearly two-third of U.S. adults (63%) were not sure whether deaths reported by VAERS were confirmed or not confirmed to have been caused by Covid-19 vaccination, and another 10% said, incorrectly, that VAERS deaths were confirmed to have been caused by Covid vaccination. Only a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) knew that VAERS deaths were not confirmed to have been caused by Covid vaccination.

An analysis of April 2022 APPC survey data found that the belief that deaths reported in VAERS are confirmed to have been caused by Covid-19 vaccines is positively associated with the belief that these vaccines are responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths. Among the people who believe that VAERS deaths are confirmed to be vaccine-caused, over half also believe that Covid-19 vaccines are responsible for thousands of deaths.

Recommendations

To clear up the public confusion surrounding VAERS, the Annenberg report recommends a series of steps:

  • Change the name of VAERS to “Vaccine Safety Watch: Incident Reporting System.”
  • Pending a name change, routinely point to VAERS’ clarifying subtitle, “A National Program for Monitoring Vaccine Safety.”
  • Routinely describe the data as raw or unconfirmed.
  • In all public statements, reiterate that VAERS data are unverified.

To read more about these findings, download the report here.

Some of the research included in the report was conducted as part of a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

Critica is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop and test new methods of advancing public acceptance of scientific evidence, counteracting scientific misinformation, and promoting the use of scientific evidence in public policymaking.


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Watch: Leftist Activists Across The US Call For “Intifada” In Support Of Palestinians

Watch: Leftist Activists Across The US Call For "Intifada" In Support Of Palestinians

It is perhaps one of the strangest political alliances…

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Watch: Leftist Activists Across The US Call For "Intifada" In Support Of Palestinians

It is perhaps one of the strangest political alliances in existence today - The political left's infatuation with Muslim extremism and supporting Islamic causes, despite the fact that the majority of leftists would likely be imprisoned or worse in Islamic countries for their beliefs. 

Regardless of a person's position on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it cannot be denied that Muslim culture is inherently hostile to progressive concepts like women's rights, gay rights, diversity and inclusion, sexual revolution, etc.  Opposition to trans ideology in particular is one of the few areas, in fact, where orthodox Muslims and conservatives in the US tend to find common ground.  In other words, Muslims have little or nothing in common with the political left in the west.  

Where the movements seem to intersect is up for debate, but it is clear that leftist activists are quick to jump on any opportunity to provoke violent deconstruction.  The past couple days have given rise to a series of leftist rallies, mostly in blue enclaves and university environments, all across the US.  People bearing rainbow flags and Palestinian flags are calling for "one solution" - A violent intifada.

The rallies all appear to be tied to far-left groups from Antifa to LGBT groups.

From Portland, Orgeon...

...to New York.

Even BLM wants in on the Intifada...

How leftist activists plan to reconcile their support of Islamic extremism with their own ideological taboos remains to be seen.  Furthermore, with the majority of Democrat politicians including Biden publicly in favor of Israel, one wonders if there will be a considerable split in the Democrat party if the conflict continues to escalate beyond the borders of Gaza.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/14/2023 - 13:25

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International

France Deploys 7,000 Soldiers After Teacher Murdered; Louvre, Versailles Evacuated Over Bomb Threats

France Deploys 7,000 Soldiers After Teacher Murdered; Louvre, Versailles Evacuated Over Bomb Threats

France has deployed 7,000 soldiers to…

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France Deploys 7,000 Soldiers After Teacher Murdered; Louvre, Versailles Evacuated Over Bomb Threats

France has deployed 7,000 soldiers to beef up security after a schoolteacher was stabbed to death and three others wounded, according to France's interior minister, who said that the suspected Islamist attack was linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

CRS riot police arrive to cordon off an area near the Gambetta high school in Arras, northeastern France on October 13, 2023, after a teacher was killed and two other people severely wounded in a knife attack. © Denis Charlet, AFP

A 20-year-old Russian-born Chechen, Mohamed M, was arrested shortly after the Friday attack at a secondary school in the northeastern city of Arras, roughly 115 miles north of Paris. According to interior minister Gerald Darmanin, who added that authorities have detained 12 people near schools or places of worship since the Hamas attack on Israel, Sky reports.

The teacher's murder comes nearly three years to the day after a Chechen Muslim beheaded a French teacher on Oct. 16, 2020, near his school in a Paris suburb.

"Three years after the assassination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has struck a school again and in a context that we all know," said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Of note, France has banned all pro-Palestinian protests. Despite this, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in central Paris on Thursday.

"Pro-Palestinian demonstrations must be prohibited because they are likely to generate disturbances to the public order," said Darmanin, who called on police to protect all locations visited by French Jews, such as synagogues and schools, and that any foreigner committing acts of anti-Semitism on French soil will be "immediately expelled."

Meanwhile, the Lourve and the Palace of Versailles were both evacuated over bomb threats.

Alarms rang out through the Louvre, a vast space also in a former royal palace Paris overlooking the Seine River, when the evacuation was announced, and in the underground shopping center beneath its signature pyramid.

Police cordoned off the monument from all sides, and the underground access, as tourists and other visitors streamed out. Videos posted online showed people leaving, some hurriedly and some stopping to take photos, others apparently confused about what was happening. -AP

The Lourve welcomes some 30,000 - 40,000 visitors per day.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/14/2023 - 12:15

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International

New York Refuses To Give More Money For Offshore Wind Projects As Cheap “Green” Myth Implodes

New York Refuses To Give More Money For Offshore Wind Projects As Cheap "Green" Myth Implodes

By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com,

The New York…

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New York Refuses To Give More Money For Offshore Wind Projects As Cheap "Green" Myth Implodes

By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com,

The New York state authorities have rejected a request by Orsted, BP, and Equinor for raising the price of electricity in future power purchase contracts featuring offshore wind energy.

Offshore wind developers have been pressured by rising raw material and component costs, and higher borrowing costs, which has cast doubt over the viability of many projects. Indeed, Reuters reported that some projects planned for the waters off the coast of New York may need to be reconsidered in light of the authorities’ decision.

"Sunrise Wind's viability and therefore ability to be constructed are extremely challenged without this adjustment," Orsted told Reuters.

Sunrise Wind is an offshore project with a planned capacity of 924 MW that could supply electricity to 600,000 households. According to Orsted, it would also involve several hundred million dollars in investments in the state and 800 jobs.

"These projects must be financially sustainable to proceed," the president of Equinor Renewables Americas told Reuters, referring to the offshore wind projects the Norwegian energy major is leading in the U.S.

Per Reuters, Equinor is involved in three projects with BP—the 816 MW Empire Wind 1 and the 1.26 GW Empire Wind 2, as well as the Beacon Wind farm, with a projected capacity of 1.23 GW.

Indeed, rising costs have compromised the financial sustainability of many wind power projects and earlier this year led to the cancellation of a large-scale one off the coast of the UK.

Swedish Vattenfall, which led the Norfolk Boreas project, said it would quit it after it saw costs rise by 40%, which made the project unviable.

To tackle the rising cost problem, wind developers have turned to governments, asking for additional tax incentives and higher electricity prices, busting the myth of cheap wind power.

The New York Public Service Commission said that if they had agreed to do what the wind developers wanted, that would have added 6.7% to New Yorkers’ electricity bills, which are already among the highest in the State.

Tyler Durden Sat, 10/14/2023 - 10:30

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